People communicate wirelessly and on the go. Among the devices that make this possible are those sometimes referred to as personal mobile devices. Examples of personal mobile devices include cell phones, smartphones, walkie-talkies, and portable hotspots, among others. A personal mobile device could be handheld (as may be the case for a walkie-talkie), body-mounted, or attached to a vehicle (such as the roof of a car), as examples.
Given the relative ease with which radio signals can be intercepted, communication with (or between) personal mobile devices is often encrypted to prevent interception of the communication by third parties. Encryption is the process of converting audible voice or other data into unintelligible voice, while decryption is the process of converting the unintelligible voice back to the original audible voice. The respective algorithms used for encryption and decryption are often referred to collectively as a cipher. Examples of common ciphers include Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Blowfish, Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (3DES), and RC4, among numerous others.
Encryption and authentication of callers and/or voice or data being communicated have increased the security, privacy and confidentiality of parties communicating between personal mobile devices involved in point-to-point communications. With respect to multi-party calls such as conference calls, particularly over a Voice-over-Internet Protocol (“VOIP”) infrastructure, gaps remain in the infrastructure where audio and call data remain unsecured. Callers often use accessory devices such as headsets when calling from a personal mobile device. While secure media sessions may be established between headset endpoints, connections to a conference call may involve exposing the voice and call data to untrusted components at the server's communication interface.
In view of the foregoing, there is an ongoing need for improving security, privacy and confidentiality of callers participating in conference calls, particularly on VOIP calls.